All Things Working Together for God

"Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31)

As I was recently preparing my sermon outline for an upcoming message on Romans 8:28, beloved, I inadvertently miss-keyed and typed the title that you see above instead of what the verse in question says about "all things working together for good."  Then it suddenly occurred to me that what might have been a typographical error was definitely not a doctrinal error.  God does indeed cause all things to work together for God!

One lesson that we seem to have great difficulty getting straight in our minds as Christians is the fact that all that God does is aimed ultimately at His own glory.  So important is His glory to Him, in fact, that to "fall short" of that glory is the direct consequence of our own sinfulness.

"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)

And because of the price that Jesus paid when He laid down His life on the cross for our sins, we find eternal assurance of our salvation in our personal relationship with Christ by faith.

"Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through which also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2)

Not only do we exult in hope of the glory of God, beloved, but we live daily in pursuit of that glory visible through thought, word, and deed.

"In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:11-12)

And that glory which is so important to God is to be the highest priority of the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.  Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21)

Without a doubt the one moment when God's glory will be most clearly and gloriously manifested will occur at that moment when all of creation past, present, and future shall proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.

"Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11)

Thus, beloved, as Scripture so vividly points out, all things do work together for God first and for our own spiritual good as well!  Whether then it be in an activity as ordinary and mundane as eating and drinking or in anything else in which we might happen to be engaged, our sole goal, our precious priority, our critical calling is to do it all for the glory of God.  That is life at its richest and the greatest height of personal fulfillment to which any of the redeemed may aspire!

Ron